1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an IC-card manufacturing apparatus suitable for manufacture of thin, non-contact-type IC cards.
2. Description of the Related Art
IC cards containing electronic components such as IC chips are generally known. Such an IC card must be manufactured such that the card has no uneven surface which would otherwise result from accommodation of an electronic component therein. Methods and apparatuses for manufacturing such an IC card have been proposed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2(1990)-16234 and in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 6(1994)-176214, 9(1997)-277766, and 11(1999)-48660.
Meanwhile, a thin, flexible, non-contact-type IC card having a thickness of a few hundreds of micrometers has recently been put in practical use; and the present inventor has proposed an IC-card manufacturing apparatus suitable for manufacture of such a thin, non-contact-type IC card (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-182014). The IC-card manufacturing apparatus is designed to manufacture an IC card through thermocompression bonding of a laminated substrate consisting of two sheet materials (laminate materials) which sandwich an electronic component such as an IC chip. Specifically, the IC-card manufacturing apparatus includes a laminated-substrate sandwiching unit consisting of upper and lower sandwiching sections for sandwiching a laminated substrate in a sealed state; and an evacuation unit for evacuating air from the interior of the laminated-substrate sandwiching unit. The evacuated laminated-substrate sandwiching unit which carries the laminated substrate is successively processed by a pre-heating press unit, a thermocompression-bonding press unit, and a cooling press unit, whereby IC cards are fabricated.
However, the above-described IC-card manufacturing apparatus has the following problem to be solved.
As shown in FIG. 3, a laminated substrate M is sandwiched between an upper pressure plate 21u of an upper sandwiching section 2u and a lower pressure plate 21d of a lower sandwiching section 2d. Before start of evacuation, the laminated substrate M has a thickness greater than a target thickness that the laminated substrate M must have after completion of thermocompression bonding, whereas the thickness (height) of a seal member (inner seal member) 12 of a laminated-substrate sandwiching unit 2, which surrounds the laminated substrate M, is adjusted to the target thickness. Therefore, when evacuation is started, in a region outside the laminated substrate M, the distance between the upper pressure plate 21u and the lower pressure plate 21d of the laminated-substrate sandwiching unit 2 becomes smaller as compared with a region where the laminated substrate M is present. As a result, as shown in FIG. 7, a peripheral portion of the laminated substrate M is sealed under a higher pressure as compared with a central portion thereof. Therefore, even when the evacuation process proceeds, air confined within the central portion of the laminated substrate M is not removed, so that sufficient and reliable evacuation of the laminated substrate M cannot be performed.